Container



Oct. 19, 1948. l I Q H, WOOD 2,451,644

CONTAINER f VFiled April 2, 1946 U11 ven fn:

Gea/"frayl Woe E Patented Oct. 19, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONTAINER Geoffrey H. Wood, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Application April 2, 1946, Serial No. 659,075

1 Claim.

This invention relates to containers. The object of this invention is to provide a container which can be employed in the ordinary manner as a shipping container and which is adapted lwhen emptied of its original Acontents to serve as a waste receptacle.

A further object of this invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive construction for achieving the aforementioned object.

According to my invention I construct an end wall of the container so that when the container is to be used as a waste receptacle it can be folded to form a sturdy hopper-type cover having a central aperture which directs waste materials dropped into the waste receptacle and which serves to prevent Waste materials from spilling out of thewaste receptacle in case it is accidentally overturned. I

The novel features of this invention as shown in a preferred embodiment will hereinafter appear in detail in the description that follows and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts, and in which:

Figure l is a plan view of the device with one pair of closure flaps in open position;

Figure 2 is a vertical section, through the device with the flaps closed, partly broken away;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the device with the flaps locked together to form the hopper-type cover; and

Figure 4 is a vertical section on the line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Referring to the drawings in which the same numbers refer to corresponding parts in the various figures, the container consists of conventional side walls, I, l and 2, 2 and bottom 3. The closure or top consists of a rst pair of rectangular flaps 4, l hingedly secured to side walls vI. A pair of diagonal slots 5 is cut in ends of the aps 4, each pair of slots diverging towards the sides of the naps. Tlhe pairs of slots are opposite to and symmetrical with one another.

A second pair of substantially quadrilateral llaps 6, are hingedly secured to side walls 2 and are provided with converging sides having tabs 'l extending outwardly therefrom at their ends. When the container which is made of cardboard or similar material is packed for shipping the pairs of naps 4 and 6 are swung inwards about their hinged ends, in that order, so that they form a substantially nat end wall at right angles to the side Walls, the naps 4 and 6 overlapping to close the container. The end wall thus formed may be sealed in position with strips of adhesive material in the usual manner (not shown). In order to remove the Icontents the 2 sealing strips are broken leaving the flaps free.

When the emptied container is to be employed as a waste receptacle, flaps 4 are swung inwards and then aps 6 are swung inwards overlaps 4 forcing naps 4 into the container until the tabs 1 catch in slots 5 locking the flaps together to Iform a hopperdtype cover (see Figure 3) in which all the flaps l and 6 slope downwards and inwards towards'a central aperture.

This invention is particularly useful in shipping and disposing of paper towels.

While this invention has been illustrated and described with respect to a particular embodiment thereof it is not to be restricted thereto but is to be construed broadly and limited solely by the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim as my invention is:

A shipping container adapted to be used when emptied as a rwaste receptacle comprising four side walls and end walls, one end wall consisting of a rst pair of substantially rectangular flaps hingedly mounted at their ends on opposite side walls and a second pair of substantially quadrilateral ilaps hingedly mounted at their -ends on the other opposite side walls and having substantially parallel ends and converging sides, said iiaps being adapted to be folded inwardly and overlapped to form a closure for the container, each of the first pair of flaps having a pair of slots therein extending diagonally in opposite directions from separated points on the end of the iiap towards the sides of the flap, the pairs of slots being opposite to and substantially symmetrical with one another, and each of the second pair of aps having a pair of tabs extending outwardly from its convergent sides adjacent to the end of the ap, the slots being positioned so that when both pairs of flaps are swung inwardly and downwardly within the container with the iirst pair below the second pair the tabs are adapt. ed to enter the slots in the adjacent flaps and lock the flaps together to form a hopper-type cover with a central aperture.

GEOFFREY H. WOOD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 278,851 Bauer June 5, 1883 288,2544 Munson Nov. 13, 1883 490,167 Schmidt Jan. 17, 1893 1,343,002 Markert June 8, 1920 1,506,587 Hunt Aug. 26, 1924 

